Rep. Schmidt Copied Material for Op-Eds in Ohio

By: E&P Staff and The Associated Press A column published recently in newspapers under an Ohio congresswoman's name was nearly identical to one released by another Ohio congresswoman in July.

An article ran under Rep. Jean Schmidt's name in several southwest Ohio newspapers in late August and last week. It said the new Medicare prescription drug benefit is saving local seniors money.

Almost the same article was in a packet of materials produced by the House Republican Conference. The office of Rep. Deborah Pryce, a Columbus-area lawmaker who leads the House GOP group, inserted data for her central Ohio district and put it on her congressional Web site on July 10.

There were about 600 words in the column submitted by Pryce. Fewer than 50 words were added or changed in the first six paragraphs of the column published under Schmidt's name. Three full paragraphs were copied with no changes. Schmidt's editorial contained an additional paragraph with her contact information.

Schmidt's challenger in the 2nd Congressional District, Democrat Victoria Wulsin, is calling it "plagiarism."

"When high school students plagiarize, they get an F," Wulsin said in a statement. "When college students plagiarize, they get expelled. And when reporters plagiarize, they lose their job. So why do we hold our congresswoman to a lower standard?"

Two newspaper editors said Monday they were led to believe the article was written by Schmidt or her staff.

"I would have assumed that it was her thoughts. The e-mail just said, 'Jean Schmidt's weekly column,'" said Jennifer Cooper, editor of The Pike County News-Watchman, a twice-weekly paper in Waverly, Ohio, which published the editorial Aug. 27.

Geoff Embler, spokesman for the House Republican Conference, said the sample editorials are there for all lawmakers to use however they wish. But Embler could not name any other lawmaker who has produced an editorial that was nearly identical to the samples provided.

"We have a communications department in Congress," Schmidt said. "Both parties have one. Every week they send out a stock letter you can use. We seldom use them. I chose to use this one because it had technical information about Medicare. It is not plagiarism if they tell you to use it," Schmidt said.

Schmidt said this particular column was "extraordinarily well-written."

Barry Bennett, Schmidt's chief of staff, said he put together the editorial from a packet of samples. He said "everybody does it" and the conference staff writes the items for every GOP lawmaker.

Ady Barkan, spokesman for Schmidt's Democratic opponent Victoria Wulsin, said both parties provide highlights, or "talking points," for lawmakers to focus on, but it's understood that they shouldn't use whole editorials nearly verbatim.

Michael Josephson, founder of the Josephson Institute of Ethics in Marina del Rey, Calif., said newspapers should not be surprised that lawmakers often don't write their own material.

Newspapers "have been codependents and now you can't express moral outrage," he said. "It's kind of like saying, 'What? There's gambling at Rick's?' or 'What? There's lying in Congress?'"

Schmidt's truthfulness has come under repeated question in a little over a year in Congress. Two other congressmen, Tom Tancredo of Colorado and Steve Chabot of Ohio, have denied Schmidt's claims that they endorsed her in this year's Republican primary. She also received a public reprimand in April from the Ohio Elections Commission for claiming on her Web site that she had two college degrees when she had only one.